Reviews by C20Percent:

Sooo, where to start with this one. You must applaud Dogfish Head for taking chances like this while brewing beer. Big kudos for them.

Beer looks pretty in the glass. I mean, it's a clean, slightly dark, rose colored with a pinky -- maybe lilac colored head. Big bubbly head too. A very unique looking beer. Would be a big "5" if it was just the appearance being graded.

The beer starts to lose me at the smell. The grape must overpowers this beer -- in really all factors -- but it starts with the aroma. You smell grapes. It pretty much smells like watered down red wine. Any red wine -- table wine, even. You have to fight to get any hop aroma -- any citrus, any grassy that you get in a normal 60-minute is almost completely muted. For the most part, I can forgive this because -- of course you're going to smell grapes. And, if the beer tasted good, I'm sure I'd be applauding the aroma. I expected the grape must and hops to compliment each other, and that is not what's happening.

And, this continues with the taste. Grape must owns the brew. In a blind taste test, you would think you're drinking a rose colored wine. A Zinfandel. Hops are muted. Grapes in the front -- grapes in the finish. It taste like someone took a nondescript Pale Ale and mixed it with two shots of wine. Anything unique about a 60-Minute IPA is missing here.

The feel is fine. The body is fine. Carbonation seems on point -- it didn't strike me as exclusive to this blended brew. But, frankly everything distracts from the feel, and in this case the feel of the beer doesn't add to the drinking experience.

Overall, this beer answers the unasked question -- what happens when you brew grape must with a Pale Ale. You get a watered down red wine. I'm quite confident that a more flavorful IPA would have had different results. Sculpin. Double Jack. Sucks. Any IPA with a lot of flavor would probably fair better being brewed with grape must. If you're looking for a unique, tasty IPA with some unique ingredients added during the brewing then I'd urge folks to look elsewhere. If you have the opportunity to purchase this as a single, then I'd say go for it. Personally, I won't be buying this again, and I'd be a bit surprised if this hits bottles after this initial round.

More User Reviews:

I was skeptical about this brew, so luckily I was able to find a single instead of having to buy four. It pours a dished out mix of amber and copper, pretty deep in hue with gazing, ruby tones when held to the light. A light, lavender head foams up big on top; creamy, chunky, and lasting for over half the glass at a substantial height. The beer looks pretty good.

I drank a lot of Welch's Grape Juice as a kid, and this beer smells like Welch's Grape Juice. A faint hint of must sits behind the grapes, kind of dry and damp woody-ish, almost like how your basement wall would smell after the window above it leaks, just before it starts to mold. Faintly leafy hop hint in the back end, but nothing takes away from those grapes.

Grapes rule the flavor profile as well, but let's take care of this first: this beer does not taste as good as it smells. It doesn't smell bad at all. It doesn't smell much like beer, but it still doesn't smell bad. Something's going on with the flavor, though, and I'm really struggling to figure out exactly what I'm tasting, here.

Grapes, with a nasty, cellar-ish, old funky, weird musty off-flavor. Keep in mind, none of these descriptors are being used in the sense that they'd be used for a lambic or gueuze. It's downright nasty funk. The heavy grape flavor blunts some of the awful-ness, but this is still pretty hard to drink. Thin bodied, spritzy carbonation, weird sweet grape, funk aftertaste.

Well, my expectations for this beer were low. The look and aroma kind of redeemed things a bit for me. But then tasting it pretty much just killed everything. I don't know where things went wrong, but this was a disaster. And I don't understand how it can be labeled an IPA. It's more like a wine cooler gone wrong. A half & half mix of 60-Minute and Boone's Farm would probably taste better than this stuff.

Pours into a standard pint glass a deep reddish pink with a light pink colored head atop,I was really suprised at the pour it looked almost like som framboise beers,pretty cool for an IPA.Aromas are fruity and musty,lightly citric hops with a bit of lightly toasted bread to go along with the grape must,very interesting but not something I loved.Flavors are on the dryer side up front with some resiny but not in your face hops,some mild sweetness follows with a more rich tasting wine grape flavor in the finish.Hmm interesting and not bad but after half a bottle it started to get to me a little.

A: A light cooper beer with a red hue and good clarity. Produces a good head stand on the pour with a long lasting off-white head of rocky bubbles.

S: A medium citrus hops aroma with a fruity and diacetyl fermentation character from the yeast. There is something else in there that doesn't make sense until you take a sip, even then I don't call.

T: A nice hops bitterness blends with a jammy, red fruit flavor and citrus hops. There is a good balance of malt to counter the moderately strong bitterness leaving a balance that is fairly bitter. The finish is off-dry and the aftertaste is of citrus hops, some bitterness and a lingering red wine like finish. It confuses the palate in a good way.

M: A fantastic, fresh sort of creaminess with moderately strong carbonation on a medium bodied beer. Some light slickness on the palate.

O: A good IPA with fruit inclinations. Did someone use Ringwood Ale yeast, I've thought this yeast need more a a diacetyl coma than a rest but it totally works here. A bit overpowering at first but it sort of works together after a few sips. If you haven't had it's worth picking up.